


The Gazebo

by georgiejohn



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, M/M, Post-Timeskip (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 22:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20397358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/georgiejohn/pseuds/georgiejohn
Summary: Sylvain, feeling nostalgic, returns to his favorite hookup spot from his days as a student. There, he finds a guest he's not expecting.





	The Gazebo

**Author's Note:**

> The idea behind this fic was born out of a simple chaotic thought from a friend of mine: ".... what if there's a fanfic set at the amiibo gazebo ..."
> 
> It's about as deep as that. Enjoy!

The cold winter now confidently behind them, the students of the Officer’s Academy - though they don’t technically qualify as either students or members of the Officer’s Academy since Garreg Mach’s destruction - are all but prepared for the coming months and, subsequently, the inevitable battles against their former classmate and her army. The monastery is filled with a sort of melancholy peacefulness now, the air filled with the kind of quiet that you crave until you have it, and only then is it that you realize that all it does is leave you alone with your thoughts.

Sylvain, in particular, isn’t used to this quiet.

He’d be the first to tell you that he longs for the days of a bustling school, a bustling town again. Full of life, and women to charm. The girls in particular, always such an effective distraction from his own conscious. Yes, the students and professors had done a great job rebuilding and restoring the once towering capital of Fódlan, but there were remnants of what was — the crumbled statue of the Goddess, the noticeable lack of Rhea’s presence, the countless number of fresh headstones in the cemetery — that served as an ugly reminder that Garreg Mach was not the same building that it used to be, regardless of how identical they tried to make it look and feel. It’s not easy, thinking back to all those days he took for granted. But, how could any of them had known—?

Despite the discomfort, walking the monastery at night actually helps clear his head. Even through the deafening silence. Particularly now, under the Garland Moon, the summer is still young enough that the night air stays crisp and chill despite the days growing hotter.

While most of the monastery stays locked after sundown, the open grounds are free game to him and tonight, Sylvain is feeling particularly sentimental. Without a plan, he finds himself strolling past the House classrooms. Here, he lingers in front of the Black Eagles’ without thinking about it, eyes wandering to the banners that still hang from either side of the entryway. Even now, and against everything he knows, he still feels as if he might spot Petra or Dorothea inside. 

His trek keeps him moving though, down past the Blue Lions classroom — hauntingly familiar, he doesn’t want to step inside — and towards the Golden Deer, where he hangs a left. It isn’t until he’s nearly there that he realizes he’s headed somewhere specific, his footsteps quiet on the fresh grass beneath his feet. Deliberate. Steadied. In tandem with his breath, that’s just barely visible under the stars.

Those stars, bright and glowing and hopeful even when they’re shining down on nothing but an old stain, a sorry excuse for something that was once akin to a star itself.

When he reaches the area behind the hedges, all but hidden from the rest of Garreg Mach, he smiles. The space is small, grassy and verdant but secluded in a way the rest of the monastery simply isn’t. A private oasis of sorts, and one that Sylvain was sure half his classmates didn’t know about even back when they were actually students.

Sylvain had found the gazebo early during his time at Garreg Mach. It was lush, and pretty. Isolated. There was an abundance of roses for him to take advantage of. It was as if Sothis herself had seen his successes with women and chose to reward him with a venue to continue his craft. At the time, it was the ultimate find, and he’s confident in saying that to this day he’d never, in the many times he’d taken advantage of the space, ever run into another person that wasn’t also someone he was going to kiss.

Not until tonight.

He’s not sure what in the world his best friend is doing out here — he had no idea Felix even knew about this spot until now, let alone why he would here alone this late at night. And though Sylvain supposes Felix might ask him the same question, he’s prepared to answer honestly, which is to say he’s prepared to give Felix the most boring, pathetic answer he can think of. 

But Felix doesn’t see him.

He faces the small, mechanical sculpture in the center of the gazebo, which was a structure that always felt out of place to Sylvain in sharp contrast to the elegance of the rest of the small area. Felix is still, but Sylvain can make out even through the dim light that his eyes are closed. His lips are moving.

“I’ve never taken you for much of a prayer.” Sylvain says, though he keeps his distance at first. He knows approaching Felix unprompted at any given time is a dangerous play — in the middle of the night, in a secluded area of the monastery? That’d likely be suicide.

Felix’s mouth stops, his hand immediately on the hilt of his blade. Those reaction times have stayed sharp after all these years, and Sylvain’s got to admit that he’s not sure there’s anyone else in the army who could pull their weapon faster than Felix. Whether this was a good or bad thing is yet to be determined.

Noticeably, Felix’s grip lightens up when he spots Sylvain, though he doesn’t release his blade entirely. His posture going slack, he sighs — visibly frustrated, Sylvain might add — and takes a step forward.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I was feeling reminiscent.” He responds with a shrug, as if there’s nothing he could have done to stop their meeting each other. Which, when he had no clue that Felix would even be here, is mostly true.

“Reminiscent.” Felix repeats, a hint of venom in his tone.

He just shrugs again though, crossing his arms along his chest as he takes a cautious step forward. Felix’s hand loosens once more on his hilt, though to anyone but Sylvain it’d be a near unnoticeable difference.

“Yeah. Like, nostalgic. You know.” Another step. “I haven’t seen this gazebo since before… well, in years.”

“Since the monastery was destroyed.”

“If you want to be blunt about it.” He turns his head away from Felix’s, focusing in on a stray rose in a hedge to the side.

There’s a long silence between the two of them, longer than it has any right to be. The crickets are loud in Sylvain’s ears and he waits. Waits for Felix to snap back or say something but he doesn’t. They both just stand there, in silence, until Sylvain speaks up again.

“It’s kind of a miracle it’s still standing.” He says quietly, turning back to Felix with a sympathetic softness in his voice.

“What?”

“This stupid gazebo.” He nods towards it, chuckles under his breath. “It’s like, after everything that happened, the statue of the goddess falls. The monastery ends up in near ruin. But this? This whole little area?” He holds his arms out now, gestures around them. “Virtually untouched. It’s kind of a miracle.”

“I suppose so.” Felix humphs. “I hadn’t thought about it much.”

There’s another moment of quiet between them, but Sylvain takes the opportunity to take the next steps toward his friend. Felix doesn’t seem to fight it.

“I had no idea you even knew about this spot.” Sylvain grins, but Felix rolls his eyes at him in response, frustrated already by the cockiness in the redhead’s voice. He speaks as if he somehow owned this place, or anything he’s ever touched for that matter. If Sylvain were any smarter, he’d know that almost everything he knew (which wasn’t much), Felix did too. 

“I stumbled on it a few years ago, but never had a reason to come back to it. It seemed pointless.”

“Pointless?” Sylvain looks hurt by this, a genuine twang of shock in his voice.

Felix scoffs at him, then nods to the small wooden sign beside the structure. “The amiibo gazebo. Is that a language you recognize? There’s no place to sit, there’s nothing to do, and the area is too small to use as a private training space. It simply just… exists.”

For a moment, Felix turns his gaze back to the small sculpture in the center. Sylvain takes a finger, and presses it to the top of the sign, idly. The amiibo gazebo.

“Could be the language of Brigid. Or Almyra, maybe.” He shrugs. “Does it matter?”

“Not particularly. It just seems strange that it’s here.”

“I guess so. It seems like you found a use for it, though. I’m sorry for interrupting your prayer earlier—”

“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have interrupted me.” He flashes a glare at Sylvain. “But it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t praying.”

“See, I didn’t think so, which is why I was so surprised.”

Another beat of silence.

“What were you doing, then?”

“...It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? I saw you talking, Felix.”

Felix rolls his eyes again, but finally turns himself to face Sylvain once more. “I was reciting a scripture that Glenn used to read to me, when I was young. It... keeps me focused. Relaxed, for when we're going into battle. Does it matter? Gods, you are nosy.”

Felix takes a step toward Sylvain now, finally moving from his spot under the roof of the gazebo. The moonlight trickles down between the two of them, faces barely illuminated. Still, it’s enough to make out the expression on Felix’s face — frustrated, annoyed, and disdainful. Nothing new.

“While we’re sharing, what could possibly have been so important for you to reminisce about tonight that you had to interrupt me?”

A feeling of dread fills Sylvain now — how much does he divulge? He’s already backed himself into a lose-lose corner, but it’s now become a battle of what reaction from Felix is worse. The one where he doesn’t share any information, or the one where he shares too much?

“I used to come here a lot when we were students.” He finally settles on — it’s kind of a pathetic excuse for an answer, but it’ll do for now.

For a moment, Felix looks at him like he’s never heard a more confusing thing in the world.

“You just came here and, what? Stood here?”

“No,” He sighs. He was trying to avoid this. “No, I used to take girls back here. To impress them. They were always so enamoured by how pretty it was, and how private it was.

After a long pause, Felix finally speaks. “Oh. How chivalrous.”

Sylvain laughs. “Sure, that’s one way to put it.” He scratches at the hair behind his head nervous, blushing through a smile even as he continues. “It was just convenient, to have a place that wasn’t my dorm. And they were always so excited that I knew about this secret place, even though it’s right here on the grounds.”

“Okay. I get it.” He turns away, idly looking back towards the gazebo.

At this point, Felix has opened a floodgate. He’s got Sylvain thinking about every past experience he’s had now: every fond memory, every stolen kiss, every rose that he’s ever gifted. It’s quite literally the furthest possible thing from what he wanted, but considering who he’s talking to, he probably should have known better.

“There was this one girl, I brought her here a few times. And I think she started thinking of it as our place, not just my place that I showed her. And so, when I broke it off with her—” He’s not even looking at Felix anymore, his gaze focused up at the stars above them.

“That’s enough, Syvlain. I get it. I have no desire to hear more about your selfish exploits at the expense of our former classmates.”

“She showed up here, for days, and I think there was a solid week or two where every time I brought a different girl here, she was waiting for me—”

Shut up, shut up, shut up. You fucking idiot, be quiet.

“‘He’s lying to you, he’ll break your heart’ blah blah blah. That kind of thing. She managed to scare off a good number of them before I even got a chance to—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Sylvain. Be quiet.”

Sylvain shuts up, and Felix’s frustration hangs in the air for a moment before either of them speaks again.

“Yeesh, sorry buddy. Didn’t realize you were so offended by my behavior.”

“You’re so stupid.” He mutters, turning once again to make eye contact with the floating sculpture under the gazebo, infinitely times prettier and easier to look at than Sylvain’s face will ever be.

“Okay, look. I’m sorry that my timing was bad, alright? I didn’t think I’d find anybody here. I’ll come be nostalgic some other time. It’s fine.” He leans back, ready to turn and walk out.

“It’s not your dumb story that bothers me, Sylvain.”

“What?”

“You’re so stupid. And blind. You refuse to look at what’s right in front of you, and how you could be affecting the people you care about.”

Sylvain chuckles. “Oh. The girls get over it. They always do. We were always just having fun, and I hardly knew them enough to say that I really care—”

But he doesn’t get a chance to finish before Felix cuts him off. “I’m not talking about the girls, Sylvain.”

His words hang there, for what feels like an eternity before Sylvain responds. “Felix… what—”

“I have loved you since we were children,” He starts, and for the first time in Sylvain’s life he thinks he might hear a tremble in Felix’s voice. “You were always the one I ran to, do you remember?”

“Of course I do.” Sylvain says, quiet now. Humbled. “How could I forget?”

“You were always there to protect me, or comfort me. The first time I saw Dimitri in battle. Fuck, when Glenn... You were always there when I needed you. Always. Until you just… weren’t.”

Sylvain snaps back quickly. “I haven’t gone anywhere, Felix. All you’ve done is push me away.”

“It’s not the same.” He defends. “I loved you, and out of nowhere, you were running off at every chance you had to spend time with random women. Girls you didn’t care about.”

“I’ve always been like that, Felix. Remember Ingrid’s grandmother? I—”

“All you did was talk about your latest romantic conquest, until it became your entire personality. The only thing you were known for.” He turns to face his friend now, eyes dead set on his, a sort of angry sadness filling them to the brim. “I couldn’t— I can’t be around that.”

He turns back around, taking his first step since he moved and starting for the exit gate on the opposite side.

“You didn’t have to throw me away, Felix.” Sylvain defends, though it’s weak. “You disappeared You’re the one who became an entirely different person, and one that wasn’t very kind to me I might add. What was I supposed to do?”

He can hear Felix’s breath through the still air, still shaky. He’s not sure if he’s ever heard Felix open up like that before, and even through his anger, Felix is his best friend. He knows how hard that must be. “I don’t know. I just..” Felix sighs. “I couldn’t stand being around that Sylvain. Not when I wanted the one I loved so much to come back to me so badly.”

Sylvain shrugs again, runs his fingers through his hair with a sigh. “So, I kinda fucked up. Lost sight of some shit. You’re right, and I’m sorry.” He blinks at the back of his best friend’s head. “But I never stopped being your friend. You stopped letting me try.”

Felix remains silent.

“You know,” Sylvain calls out, still quiet, but just loud enough for Felix to hear him. “I used to think I’d never been here with anyone I didn’t intend to kiss before I left.” Slowly, he starts walking towards Felix, chasing his friend to the other side. His footsteps are soft against the wet grass, quiet but not inaudible. If Felix wants to escape now, he has every chance, and Sylvain won’t stop him.

Felix, unmoving until now, turns his head so that he can see Sylvain approaching from the corner of his eye. “Let me apologize for breaking such an impeccable record, then.” He quips.

Sylvain catches up to him from behind, and smiles. It only takes him a minute “I never said that you did.”

He turns Felix around and presses his own lips to his without thinking, and it’s only a brief moment’s worth of shock and frustration in Felix before he melts into the touch, a gentle exhale through his nose as he relaxes into Sylvain’s grip. The seconds they stay there feel like years, and the only thing that breaks the silence of the night air is the sound of each other’s breathing. Sylvain holds Felix tight, tighter than he’s ever held anyone before Felix finally pulls away from him.

He’s quiet again, and he stares at Sylvain’s mouth while he thinks of how to put the words together. He can’t meet his gaze. “It’s because I didn’t want you to be my friend.” He finally admit quietly, refusing to make eye contact. It may be the most ungraceful sentence he’s ever put together, but in this moment he can’t think of an alternative.

Sylvain takes Felix’s chin on his index finger and tilts his head upwards, forcing their eyes to meet.

“Okay.” He says with a smile. His charm is turned up to eleven as always, but this time, with Felix, it’s different. “Then you’re going to have to let me try to be more.”


End file.
